If seeing's believing, TV impasse hurts Rockets

For some fans, the closest they'll get to seeing the Rockets this season might be the life-size cutouts of the players that will be available for photos during the NBA Jam Session at the George R. Brown Convention Center. The Jam Session begins today and runs through Sunday.

For some fans, the closest they'll get to seeing the Rockets this...

This is an unpaid programming announcement for Rockets fans. You should make sure to watch Sunday night's NBA All-Star Game from Toyota Center on TNT.

You'll see, arguably, one of the league's top 10 players, a U.S. Olympian, a member of a team that reached the NBA Finals last year and now a Rocket - the only Rocket in the All-Star Game.

I exaggerate. About 40 percent of people in the Houston area can see Harden, Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons and the rest of the Rockets play every game if their television carrier is Comcast Cable, Coastal Link, Consolidated Cable, EnTouch or Phonoscope.

If you are among the 60 percent who don't have one of those, you can, on rare occasions, see the Rockets on ESPN, TNT or the NBA Network.

There will be similar predicaments this season for those who want to watch the Astros or Dynamo, the overwhelming majority of whose games will be televised only to the 40 percent.

In an interview with the Chronicle last week, Astros owner Jim Crane expressed optimism that a deal could be worked out with other carriers such as DirectTV, Dish Network, ATT U-verse and Time Warner Cable.

But in interviews this week among various parties involved in negotiations, no one seemed genuinely optimistic a deal would be done soon. The furthest anyone would go was to say that everyone is still taking everyone else's phone calls.

Problem solved in N.Y.

This sort of dispute between networks and carriers is almost routine. The best example relating to this one occurred a year ago when Time Warner Cable in New York would not carry the MSG (Madison Square Garden) Network, which owns the rights to the Knicks.

That was at the height of Linsanity. The outcry from Knicks fans, especially those in Manhattan's Chinatown, reached such a pitch that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Knicks fan, became involved in the negotiations.

"The team is hot,'' he reportedly told the two parties, "and it is in your best interests to make a deal.''

They made a deal, which Cuomo later said might not have occurred without the heightened pressure created by Lin's play for the Knicks.

Lin is now a Rocket, but his play has not been so spectacular that it has inspired Rick Perry to become involved or brought the sides closer.

Nor has fan pressure. Matt Hutchings, president and CEO of Comcast SportsNet Houston, which owns the local rights to Rockets, Astros and Dynamo games and other events, said Wednesday his network has received "tens of thousands'' of letters and signatures on petitions that have been presented to carriers.

I believe him. Every time I write about the Rockets, I receive emails from readers who ask why I bother when they can't follow the team.

I received one last week from a Rockets fan who said she had "lamented that the fans seem to have the least power in all these decisions'' and that her daughter had responded, "Mom, it's not about the fans. It's about money!''

Smart young lady.

You shouldn't cry too much for most of the parties tangled in the negotiations. Comcast, the parent company of Comcast SportsNet Houston, owned 51 percent of NBC Universal and just bought the remaining 49 percent. So you can assume Comcast is not going broke, even if one of its regional sports networks is not yet getting the bang for the bucks it paid for the rights to the Rockets, Astros and Dynamo - money, by the way, the teams aren't refunding.

Carriers drawing line

Carriers are obviously frustrated with increasing fees demanded from sports networks and, with many viewers having little or no interest in sports, believe they have to draw the line somewhere.

Of course, they have done that before, only to take a step backward and draw the line elsewhere.

Now it is in Houston.

Maybe the carriers serving us are wrong and, as in cities like New York and Los Angeles, will be pressured by the marketplace to make a deal. Or maybe they're right and won't make a deal.

In that case, dear fans, the woman who emailed me is correct. You have no power.

Nor will you likely receive a refund from those carriers that brought you the games last year but are not this year.

You do have a more interesting team than anyone expected in the Rockets. But if you depend on television to see them, it's a little like having a fake girlfriend.